Research Brief
N ATION AL DEF EN S E R ES EAR C H IN S TITUT E
Does the Military Child Care System Serve Its Purpose?
RAND RESEARCH AREAS
THE ARTS
CHILD POLICY
CIVIL JUSTICE
EDUCATION
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
NATIONAL SECURITY
POPULATION AND AGING
PUBLIC SAFETY
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
TERRORISM AND
HOMELAND SECURITY
TRANSPORTATION AND
INFRASTRUCTURE
WORKFORCE AND WORKPLACE
T
he Department of Defense (DoD) operates
the largest employer-sponsored system of
high-quality child care in the country. As
an employer-sponsored benefit, this system
should promote the goals of recruitment, retention, and readiness. But despite the large subsidy
DoD provides for military child care (MCC),
such goals have not been a key consideration in
its design or operation. The present study reexamined data from previous RAND MCC
studies of child care cost and demand to assess
whether MCC is serving the needs of the military
and what changes should be made to improve the
system’s ability to meet employer goals as well as
family needs.
Abstract
Evidence suggests that the U.S. Department of
Defense (DoD) child care system, the largest
employer-sponsored child care system in the
country, is not meeting recruitment, readiness,
and retention goals or service member needs
in an optimal way. To better leverage its
resources and offer quality care that meets
the needs of more military parents as well as
its own manpower goals, DoD should assess
the child care needs of military personnel
and consider the options available both in
the military and within the greater civilian
community.
The MCC System Aims to Provide
Flexible, Affordable, Quality Child Care
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A variety of largely on-base settings enables the
system to meet the needs of military parents
for reliable, high-quality care while recognizing
parental preferences concerning environment,
size, and flexibility. Child care options include
on-base Child Development Centers (CDCs) as
well as DoD Family Child Care (FCC) homes
(in which trained military spouses provide care
for small numbers of children). In areas where
on-base child care is not available, the military
has recently begun offering some programs in
local communities and help in identifying quality
care providers.
Families using CDCs pay fees based on total
family income; on average, these fees cover less
than half the cost of providing care. A vast share
of DoD child care resources is used to subsidize
care in CDCs. These subsidies are mandated by
the Military Child Care Act of 1989. However,
many families using CDCs do not recognize
the value of the substantial subsidy they receive.
Additional MCC resources are used to provide
modest subsidies to some parents using FCC
and to MCC programs in local communities.
Families that cannot or choose not to use MCC
receive no help in paying for child care.
Use of—and Satisfaction with—the
Military Child Care System
According to the findings of a 2004 RAND survey, MCC programs reach only a small fraction
of the total military population, in part because
at any given time, many members do not have
small children. At most, 7 percent of all military
members are served by CDCs, and another 4
percent by FCC. Among families most likely to
need full-time child care—i.e., families with
children under age six—fewer than half use
DoD-sponsored care. Dual-military and singleparent families receive higher priority and
are more likely to use MCC than are families
with a civilian working spouse (families with a
nonworking civilian spouse are not eligible for
MCC). Proximity to the base is also a factor in
program use: the greater the distance between a
family’s home and the base, the lower the likelihood of using MCC and the greater the likelihood of using civilian child care.
MCC as a Compensation Issue
Beginning in the 1970s, some private-sector employers began
offering a variety of child care benefits, including on-site
or subsidized child care and resource and referral services,
always with the aim of improving recruitment, retention, and
productivity. Studies suggest that child care issues do affect
private-sector productivity and that addressing these issues
produces a positive return on investment.
Does MCC improve military recruiting, retention, and
readiness? Given that few military personnel themselves are
aware of the value of the DoD subsidy for child care, it is
unlikely that MCC promotes recruiting. However, there is
some evidence from the 2004 RAND survey that child care
issues do affect military retention and readiness. Families with
preschool-aged children—particularly CDC users—were
much more likely than others to consider leaving the military
because of child care issues. And given that on-base MCC is
unavailable to activated Reserve and National Guard parents,
the program plays no role in promoting the retention of these
soldiers. The survey also identified effects on readiness: Over
half of military mothers and nearly one-quarter of military
fathers reported missing work in the previous month because
of child care issues. Many parents said that they had difficulty
reporting for duty or relocating following the birth of a child.
What Should Be Done?
In spite of its high cost, the present MCC system provides
uncertain returns to DoD. Although DoD does not currently
assess how MCC may be contributing to recruitment, readiness, and retention, it would be useful to know and would
not be difficult to find out.
The MCC system currently funnels a large share of its
resources into providing high-quality care to a relatively
small number of families. Explicitly excluded are nonworking spouses. Implicitly excluded are those who live far from
base and those who cannot or will not use MCC. The entire
MCC system is based on the idea that high-quality care
promotes recruitment, readiness, and retention. However,
a majority of military families with young children do not
use MCC. Instead, many of these families are using civilian child care options, which, research shows, tend to be of
mediocre quality. It would be in keeping with the MCC’s
mandate to strive to improve the quality of care received by
all military children. To do so would require DoD to carefully evaluate the costs and benefits of a range of options,
including the following:
• redistributing resources within the current system, while
holding costs constant, a measure that would lead to
CDC cutbacks
• expanding the MCC benefit to include more families
and more types of care (which would increase costs)
• expanding access to MCC subsidies, creating more
community-based FCC homes, and providing subsidies
for civilian programs
• identifying and supporting ways to improve the quality
of care offered by local civilian providers.
While there is some reluctance to devote DoD resources
to community providers, implementing training and certification for local providers and tying DoD subsidies to
provider quality would increase the numbers of DoD dependents in higher-quality care. This care would better address
the needs of children, parents, and DoD.
By assessing the child care needs of military personnel
and considering the options available both in the military
and within the greater civilian community, DoD might
better leverage its resources and offer a broader range of
high-quality care that both meets the needs of military
parents and promotes its goals of recruitment, retention,
and readiness. ■
This research brief describes work done for the RAND National Defense Research Institute and documented in Options for Improving the Military Child Care System, by Gail L. Zellman, Susan M. Gates, Michelle Cho, and Rebecca Shaw, 2008, 76 pp., $26.50,
ISBN: 978-0-8330-4414-3 (available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP217/). This research brief was written by
Sydne Newberry. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions
that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect
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RB-9363-OSD (2008)
THE ARTS
CHILD POLICY
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CIVIL JUSTICE
EDUCATION
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
NATIONAL SECURITY
This product is part of the RAND Corporation
research brief series. RAND research briefs present
policy-oriented summaries of individual published, peerreviewed documents or of a body of published work.
POPULATION AND AGING
PUBLIC SAFETY
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
TERRORISM AND
HOMELAND SECURITY
TRANSPORTATION AND
INFRASTRUCTURE
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